I am very happy to report due to this just being brought to my attention that my post about "A Word of Advice to All New Female Missionaries" (attached below) was given or rather read to two serving Sisters and one had now come home early.

I served a mission 20 years ago in Poland. This was a couple years after the fall of the Berlin wall and Eastern Europe was only beginning to open up to mormons. While I had some amazing un-mormon experiences, and saw some amazing historical sites, my mission could be explained as: 2 wasted years.

It's been awhile since I posted, but I'm still lurking. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share this glimpse into the selection process for visitors-center missionaries, from a somewhat distant relative of mine who recently went through the process. FYI, she is very pretty.

I would like to ask all of you about it from a place it will be seen; am just extremely curious, is this is the new trend overall? This past year I have been shocked at how many of the missionaries have come home early since the lowering of the age for leaving a year ago.

When my parents died, I (as the oldest child) inherited a lot of things that they had inherited from their parents. One item was my grandfather's mission journal, which recorded his experiences as a Mormon missionary in England, 1907-1908. I had never read it, but when my TBM [Mormon] brother found out that I had it, and wanted me to photocopy it for him, I decided to read it.

I need to post the story, I love telling it. I wonder if any of my former mission are now exmormon and lurking on this site...1994-1996 Kobe Japan anyone? I wonder if they remember the shenanigans that were going on then.

My 20 year old daughter received a letter in the mail last week from an old friend who is currently serving a mission. [My daughter came to me in tears as she felt the letter diminished their friendship and had it reduced her to just being a project.]

Yesterday afternoon the new "elders" in our ward showed up to visit. They were polite. I ws not rude. we talked about the usual things, where ya frum, how old R ya, etc. Then I asked them how much money they were allowed each month. Their answer was shocking to me. $125.00 each!